Empowering the Valve Industry for a Hydrogen-Ready Future

Forming Gas Replacing Helium – VENTIL & SHELL Pioneering Cost- Effective FE Testing

ULTRA Bench Reduces Cycle Time by 85% Through Clever Use of Leakage Physics

What does it take to be hydrogen-ready in the valve industry? A simple question, growing sharper as the hydrogen economy finds its way into the energy mix. And the answer can vary depending on the vantage point.

A New Industry Standard: API 6D Annex M

Standards-wise, API 6D Annex M is a milestone. It is the first internationally accepted standard for pipeline valves in gaseous hydrogen service, introducing a framework for design, materials, testing, and factory acceptance testing. It’s comprehensive, allows innovation, and is welcome.

The Business Case Challenge

Standards alone don’t tackle hydrogen’s biggest hurdle: the business case. Hydrogen’s market price is undetermined, but the consensus is that every pound spent on infrastructure has to return in the business case. While Annex M is part of the solution, it has limited impact on hydrogen’s business case. For the valve industry, it should be taken as an opportunity to prepare for the next step: delivering cost-effective solutions with a longer lifespan.

Safety and Reliability Without Compromise

VENTIL’s mission is to make the world safer by providing advanced valve test equipment and procedures that boost reliability, and cut unnecessary costs - all without compromising on quality. Our goal: to safeguard the safety and integrity of industrial installations.

Game-Changer: Cost-Effective FE Testing with Forming Gas

An example of these efforts links back to 6D’s Annex M. VENTIL contributed to drafting of the standard and authored the production-testing requirements. The key shift is allowing the use of forming gas (95% N₂ / 5% H₂) as a direct replacement of helium in production testing. And the result is not subtle: cost of gas is reduced by 90%, making the required 100% fugitive-emission testing commercially viable.

Collaborating with Shell: The Forming Gas Project

‘The Forming Gas Project’ is a collaboration between VENTIL and Shell Global Solutions, to understand the behaviour of gas leakages to improve quality. From these experiences Shell was the first to adopt the use of forming gas for testing valves, and it leaves VENTIL with the experience to set up the test at customers’ factories and provide the best leak detectors for the job.

Introducing ULTRA: Next-Generation Factory Acceptance Testing

This project is the foundation of ULTRA, an automated Factory Acceptance Test bench. ULTRA integrates all pressure, functional, and fugitive-emission tests. It is a solution that reduces labour costs, increases productivity and improves competitive edge against production in low-wage countries. And while it was originally developed to reduce cycle times by 85%, the technology taps into the valve industry’s main hurdle towards our hydrogen economy: Competitive Edge.

Looking Ahead: Pushing the Boundaries of Valve Testing

In 2025 and 2026, VENTIL commits to developing solutions to tackle operational challenges and solve the missing links – like testing at –253 °C for liquid hydrogen.

Stay tuned for updates - or get in touch with us directly:

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